Today I’m going to teach you seven ways to “work out” your English.
Sound too much like hard work? Relax! We are going to do this without breaking a sweat.
You won’t even need to change into your lycra gym gear. You can leave the leg warmers and the sweatbands in the wardrobe, or even better, in the 80s.
All of this has been inspired by a personal “situation”.
Just in case you’ve ever wondered what Justin, that is, yours truly, does when he isn’t teaching and writing, well, I can’t lie, I enjoy eating out.
Maybe, just a bit too much.
So, now I am faced with a problem.
My favourite clothes don’t fit anymore.
I have to do something.
ANYTHING.
And right now!
So, I’ve gone back to my gym.
And honestly, it’s killing me. Softly.
Okay. I’m exaggerating.
Exercise works. Practice makes perfect. And that brings me to you, my readers.
I’m not saying you need to join a gym.
But, MAYBE, you do need to give your English a good work out.
It’s time for me to reveal the seven ways you can work out your English (without breaking a sweat). I’m going to do it, with a little help from my friends. Eat idea is backed up by a fitness-related inspirational quote and we’ll see how these can be moulded and adapted to your study of English.
1. HAVE A GOAL
Here’s a sentence I never, in a million years, thought I would write. But, maybe you should take a leaf out of Khloe Kardashian’s book. She said (of fitness):
Fitness is not about being better than someone else... It's about being better than you used to be.
To do that you need a goal. A major, big, fat goal.
We all need goals.
Otherwise, there really is NO POINT doing something.
You should probably have one big one and several small ones. It could be
“I want to impress my in-laws when I meet them for the first time”.
Or:
“I want to feel completely confident about my English when I defend my dissertation”. Or it might be something as simple as being able to comfortably describe your favourite cake in a bakery.
It just needs to be whatever the REASON FOR YOU LEARNING ENGLISH is. You need to know.
2. PACE YOURSELF!
How many people rush in to things, take on too much, burn themselves out and fail?
LOTS.
But not the comedienne, Joan Rivers. She always waited and watched. Then she knew what she had to do. See!
The first time I see a jogger smiling, I'll consider it.
I don’t often see students of English smiling, So, why not get the ball rolling (start) with something easy and fun: children’s books and cartoons!
Right now, you might be thinking I’ve gone crazy.
No, I haven’t!!
Books and cartoons contain great vocabulary and grammar structures. They are generally a little easier to start off with.
BELIEVE ME! Peppa Pig is full of great phrasal verbs and expressions. In little teeny-weeny (small) bites.
Oink!
3. WARM UP IS THE KEY
Very often the people whose English makes you feel envious, are no more fluent than you are. They just seem like they are, because they are… prepared. If you’d read Florence Griffith’s Joyner’s famous quote, you would have already known how important warming up, or preparing is:
A muscle is like a car. If you want it to run well early in the morning, you have to warm it up.
English is just the same.
Prepare before you go anywhere!
Think about the language you might need to use. Will you be requesting anything, talking about amounts, agreeing, disagreeing or complaining? Find the vocabulary you need and run it over in your head 3 or 4 times before you go out. Repeat it to yourself while you are on your way, just to be feel confident. Then show off!
4. 15 MINUTES A DAY!
Did I say it was going to be easy? No.
Did I say it was going to absorb your whole day? NO!
Charles Atlas, the Italian-American bodybuilder said it best when he said
15 minutes a day! Give me just this and I'll prove I can make you a new man.
And in today’s blog, I beg you. Do this every day. Even Sunday.
Oh, and Monday. There’s not a lot you can do in 15 minutes, but you MUST (yes, MUST) set aside the time to work on your English.
“What can I do?”, I hear you ask.
Well! Start by learning different ways to say the same thing. Instead of saying, Hello! you can say:
Hey!
Hi!
Hiya!
Howdy!
G’day! (If you are in Australia).
Or even Yo! (This is more appropriate if you are in Los Angeles or New York).
It all depends on where you are.
When it’s time to leave, you can say goodbye, but you can also say, See ya! Later! Bye! or even Bye bye!
When you learn a new word, don’t just confine it to your memory bank and forget it. Think of all the additional forms this new word gives rise to. For example, if you learn the noun information, you might also benefit from knowing inform, infomercial, informative and informational. These are things you can easily do in 15 minutes. Just do it!
5. JUST DO IT
So, Nike said it first. Okay. They had a point.
When it comes to studying English, there is no point buying pretty coloured notebooks, pens and highlighter markers, textbooks, CDs and DVDs, if they are going to die a slow death in your wardrobe. Kim Kardashian, (remember her?), knows this better than anyone. Let her be the one to tell you:
It's all about taking action, and not being lazy. So, you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
So, to use a sporting expression: the ball is in your court.
It’s up to you now. You decide how you want to play this.
But my advice is…
THINK in English.
DON’T translate.
Talk to yourself - in the car, or if you are in the supermarket, in your head. Yes, why not do the shopping in English? Heck! Why not do all your thinking in ENGLISH?
Hey! You can even SING!
Get the lyrics of your favourite Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Celine Dion or Queen songs and sing! sing! sing! In English, obviously.
6. 100%
There’s no point attacking this ‘problem’ any other way. Either you give it your all or you should just find another way to waste your time. If Arnold Schwarzenegger were here he might say:
Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach.
Well, I’m telling you that learning English is just like bodybuilding. And I should know. My English is perfect, but I did try body-building. And… it’s not as easy as it seems.
So, what can you do to be 100% dedicated to English?
· Write Whatsapps in English, even if the person you’re writing to has the same mother tongue as you do. If you have colleagues working abroad, only write to them in English.
· Drill your irregular verbs.
· Choose a preposition of the day and prepare cards with five phrasal verbs that use these prepositions and then use them all day, as often as you can.
This way you might have a fighting chance of reaching near native-level English.
7. DON´T LOSE HOPE!
English students initially see rapid improvements. Some make amazing progress. And then things slow down.
And eventually, STOP.
Yes, you hit the P L A T E A U.
It’s difficult to get back to advancing onwards and upwards.
A lot of people just give up here.
On the plateau.
It’s full of dead bodies. I promise you.
Alex Morgan, the U.S. female soccer star, says it best - It's so easy to lose your fitness and so hard to gain it back.
Never give up. Keep working. Keep reviewing. And talk. Oh… and one little thing. Throw away or at least shut your dictionary. It shouldn´t come to dominate your life. It should only be there to help in EXTREME CASES.
Did you hear me?
E X T R E M E C A S E S
If you don’t know the word for the thing you want to say, use an alternative. A word that you know!
Just don´t throw in the towel.
What strategies work for you?
What ideas from your gym workouts have you tried to incorporate into your English learning? Please leave a comment, email me at justin@justintimeforjustin.com or tweet me at @imjustinmc
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